Cardiovascular health and disease overview

Cardiovascular Weight Loss Program

In addition to a healthy eating program, cardiovascular exercise is an important component of any weight loss program. Cardiovascular training involves strengthening the heart and lungs through exercise. This paper describes the cardiovascular training program I undertook to lose 15 pounds.

Beginning Composition:

I am a 33-year-old, Hispanic male, in reasonable health. I'm approximately 5'10" in height and weighed 195 pounds at the start of this program.

Warming Up:

My cardiovascular program involved jogging five times per week. A warm up program was consistently followed prior to each exercise session. For warm up, I used a tread mill at a 2 mph setting and walked at this low intensity pace for 5 minutes in order to get blood circulating and warm up my muscles.

Stretching:

Stretching followed warm up prior to each exercise section. These included: calf stretches, soleus stretches, quadriceps stretching, side lunges, leg over stretches, spine curve stretching, shoulder strangle stretches, hand down spine stretch, and neck stretches, held for 20 to 30 seconds each.

The Exercise:

chose jogging as my preferred method of cardiovascular exercise. I chose this for a couple of reasons. First, I understand that it's an effective method of improving fitness in a short period of time. Second, there was no additional equipment I needed to purchase, as I already owned a good pair of running shoes. Third, I could either run outside, when the weather permitted, or at an indoor track or on a treadmill machine.

Duration, Frequency and Intensity:

The first week of exercise, I jogged at a fairly low intensity, reaching 60% of my maximum heart rate, which I figured to be 187 beats per minute, for 30 minutes each day, five sessions per week. The second week, I increased the intensity to maintain a heart rate of 70%, of the maximum, or 131 beats per minute, and maintained my duration of 30 minutes per session, 5 sessions per week.

By the end of this second week, I began to feel more comfortable with my routine. I also had begun to see the results of my efforts on the scale. By the end of the second week, I had lost seven pounds, and felt comfortable enough to increase the duration of my jogging sessions.

For the third week, I maintained a 70% of maximum heart rate. I also maintained the frequency of five sessions per week. However, as I felt my abilities increasing, I increased the duration to 40 minutes per session.